


Grown Up

by parka_girl



Category: Inception (2010), Monsta X (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Inception Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 14:17:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8059528
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/parka_girl/pseuds/parka_girl
Summary: Kihyun's an architect, Wonho's a forger. And it's Wonho who rescues Kihyun from limbo.





	

When Kihyun was very small, someone asked him what he wanted to be. He doesn't remember what his answer was, and as he got older, it changed and even now he isn't entirely sure what he wants to become. He isn't even really clear if he's grown up or not. When he asked his parents, before they kicked him out of the house, how they knew they were adults, he'd gotten no satisfactory answers from them, only to discover it's because no one really knows. On the outside they may look like adults, but on the inside, all bets are off. Kihyun understands that now and perhaps that's the biggest sign that he is no longer the awkward teenager or the soul-searching twenty-something. 

Instead he is something else, something more than himself. He lives in two worlds, the real world where life goes on around him and the planet continues to spin on it's axis, and the dream world, where time stands still and if he's not careful, he could get lost. He has come close, only once, and it was his boyfriend who saved him. Who had climbed down into the dream after him and pulled him out, kicking and screaming. Kihyun had known the dangers, but no one ever truly expects to fall into limbo, not anymore. The story of the Cobb family is a warning to them all. 

But limbo finds you. It worms its way into your soul, its fingers twisting around your heart, letting you dwell in the memories you'd long ago believed you'd forgotten. Hoseok wasn't Kihyun's boyfriend when he saved Kihyun's life. In fact, they'd barely known each other. They had just started working together, Kihyun the architect to Hoseok's forger. The team Kihyun had recently left was the way limbo found into his soul. He'd been sleeping with that team's extractor, a beautiful, elegant man who had swept Kihyun off his feet. 

They had been together for four years, beginning not long after Kihyun's discharge from the military and his return to the dream world. Kihyun had been in high school when Dominic Cobb had made a name for himself, he'd been pursuing a different kind of dream back then. He'd discovered dream sharing the year Cobb chased that Japanese businessmen into limbo. He'd only stopped when he had to enlist. As soon as he'd discharged, he'd found that the world of dream sharing had changed while he was gone. It was deeper underground, a bit darker, but just as active. 

His boyfriend, older by a few years, had taken him under his wing, nurtured him and got him kicked out of his parents' house. Kihyun had started university shortly after discharging, finding that architecture was something that he could do. It easily translated into the dream world and even before he'd enlisted, he'd spend hours building cities. Now, working his way through university, he found he could do it so much better. 

But it was his relationship that caused the fracture within his family. His boyfriend wasn't Korean, though he'd lived in Korea for much of his life and in some ways that was almost worse than his being a man. Almost, but not quite. His parents had packed up his room one weekend while he was working and when he returned home, it was sitting in the front hall. He had called his boyfriend, who came to pick him up and they'd moved in together. 

Even back then Kihyun had known it wasn't going to last, but he was young and unafraid. He let himself be taken in, ignoring the voice in the back of his head telling him that this wasn't love, it wasn't real, it was all an illusion, not unlike the dream worlds he created. Instead, he continued through school, finishing his architecture degree and signed a contract to work for his boyfriend's employer. They were part of a team, built exactly like so many other teams. Kihyun was not, at first, the main architect, but the woman who was liked him and often they'd work together. 

She left two years later and told Kihyun that he should get out. Kihyun had, as he was wont to do, ignored her advice. Looking back, he should've left, but he couldn't. He was still too wrapped up in his own love story to see the bigger picture, if he'd ever been able to, he was no point man. It took him two years before he could leave and when he decided it was time, it took him just under 24 hours to do it. He'd known his boyfriend was cheating on him and had been for at least a year if not longer. He'd let himself be lied to because it was easier, because he had no family to fall back on. 

But he had subtly began to change, to build himself the safety net he'd thrown away. He started saving money, letting his boyfriend buy him things, which he'd balked at before. It took him a year to save enough to get away, the longest year of his entire life. Longer than the two years he was in the military, longer than high school, longer than anything he could remember. And then, on New Year's Day, he left. 

He hadn't known, when he walked out the door while his boyfriend slept off his hangover, that he was leaving part of himself in that flat. That was a discovery that would come later, that was the what limbo taught him. Instead, he let himself feel free and scared. He'd left a note, saying that he was sorry, but the team would need a new architect and that their relationship, such as it was, had ended. His ex never called and Kihyun was both hurt and relieved. 

He'd found a flat, far from that of his ex-boyfriend. Though the dream sharing world was small, Kihyun worked hard to build up a reputation independent of his ex. The four years had worked in Kihyun's favor, for while his ex was an asshole, he always got the job done and Kihyun's degree meant he had something other architects lacked. His dreams looked more real than many and it was on this that he traded. He found work easily and the money once again began to accumulate. 

Kihyun was lonely, he missed being part of a team and sometimes he'd wake up and swear he'd dreamed about his ex. He'd long since stopped dreaming when he slept, but the ache in his heart was real enough to make him believe he had. He started to dream share on his own, putting his spare PASIV on his nightstand and spending hours telling himself he wasn't visiting his own memories.

He told no one, but somehow Hoseok had known. Maybe it was the haunted look on his face, maybe it was the lies that were beginning to shred every time he told him. Whatever it was, Hoseok saw through the ruse. They had been working together for three months. Kihyun had found an ad for a forger who was in need of a job and Kihyun had just been hired by a small team who needed a forger and was struggling to find one. They'd hit it off almost immediately and if Kihyun hadn't been so deep in his own memories, he would've seen that Hoseok was what had been missing from his life. 

But Kihyun hadn't seen that, not until it was almost too late. Instead, they'd gotten on well enough and then when Hoseok had suggested maybe they work as a team, Kihyun had agreed. They also lived in the same building, which made it easier to work together. After three months, they'd given each other spare keys and Kihyun was happy enough not to be alone. But he wasn't happy. He was drifting away from the real world. 

He and Hoseok would finish a job, and there was always work, celebrate with ramen or something equally as enjoyable, and return to their respective flats. Kihyun would turn off his phone, hook himself up to his PASIV and pretend he was practicing. In reality, he was heading ever closer to limbo. He'd read about it, he'd read too much about it, but he was certain he could stop himself. Until one day he couldn't. He hadn't, not until Hoseok had shown up, eventually realized he was still dream sharing. That was the thing about limbo you always thought you could quit until it was too late.

Later, when Kihyun was going through withdrawal, Hoseok would tell him what happened. Kihyun had been under for almost two days. He'd missed an appointment and their daily meeting. His phone had been off and one of the elderly neighbors who lived on Kihyun's hall had contacted Hoseok because she hadn't heard from him. Hoseok had promised to look in on him, prepared to yell at Kihyun for causing so many problems and that's when he found him. 

_You were barely breathing_ , Hoseok said, eyes glittering with unshed tears. 

He'd found Kihyun sprawled on his bed, dying. Hoseok had found another needle, hooked it up to the PASIV and dove in after him. He'd fought through so many layers of Kihyun's memories that Kihyun had had to look away, unable to bare the pity on Hoseok's face. Except it wasn't pity, but Kihyun hadn't known that then. He'd found Kihyun, trapped in his own memories, letting himself slowly fade away. He had hauled Kihyun back, freeing him from the grasp of limbo before he, too, succumbed. 

He'd cleaned Kihyun up and refused to leave him alone. He'd removed all of Kihyun's PASIVs and bottles of Somnacin, relocating them to his own flat. He canceled all of their meetings, Giving their clients to friends and colleagues who could do the jobs, if not as well, but good enough. And then he waited Kihyun out. 

Kihyun had never read about withdrawal. It felt like he was coming out of a drug-induced haze, and maybe in a way it was. But it wasn't the Somnacin or even the dreaming that was the problem. It was his own head, his memories. As he curled up on his bed, sobbing and feeling desolate and alone, he told Hoseok everything. Once he started his confession, he kept going until it was done. Hoseok had said nothing, just sat on the floor next to Kihyun's bed, holding his hand as Kihyun sobbed. 

And when it was done, Hoseok told him his own story. Kihyun had understood that his experiences were not unique, but they were his own and no one else's. Hoseok's story was more about heartache than Kihyun's. His limbo was the real kind, the one that Kihyun had wanted to avoid and let the limbo of dreams take him instead. But Hoseok had found a way through and he was here to pull Kihyun back into the living. And it had worked. 

Three months later, they'd finally slept together. Kihyun had finally understood, that Hoseok had probably liked him from the moment they met, but had seen what Kihyun was becoming. His time in limbo scared them both, but Kihyun had run out of secrets to hide and now Hoseok knew them all. A month after Hoseok had freed him, Hoseok had taken Kihyun into his own memories. It was not limbo, there were two of them and they were not shared memories. And when they resurfaced, hours later, Kihyun understood. They had, in the end, bared their souls to each other. 

It was only natural that the next step would be to fall in love. It took Kihyun longer than he liked to realize that he was in love with Hoseok. They worked nearly constantly to make up for the time lost during Kihyun's month and half recovery. But when they had finally regained their place in the dream sharing community, Kihyun had figured things out, too. 

Here, too, Kihyun thinks that perhaps this is what it means to be an adult. You can fall, you can fail, you do fall and you do fail. But you pick yourself up again, you move on, you live again. You don't have to go alone, unless you want to. And this makes Kihyun feel better, looking over at Hoseok, sitting next to him or sleeping next to him, or standing in the other room on the phone, fixing dinner, or just sitting in their living room watching TV. He is not alone. 

He tries, too, to repair his relationship with his family. He cannot erase the damage he'd caused, but he can repair it. And so he tries. 

There is still a PASIV on his nightstand, but it's one that he shares with Hoseok. They dream together, to practice, to go places they can't visit yet. But they spend time in the real world, too. They go out with friends, they learn and grow. Kihyun knows this, too, is what it means to be an adult. But underneath all the happiness he feels, and there is so much of it, he understands how easy it would be to slip back into limbo. But he doesn't. He has been there, he came back, and the tendrils of limbo do not have the hold on his heart they once did. No matter how easy it would be, he knows he would not be able to come back from it. Not this time. 

And so he doesn't dream alone. When he promised this to Hoseok, before they'd even started sleeping together, Hoseok had promised the same. They do not do solo jobs, they only work as a pair, hiring themselves out for all sorts of jobs and sometimes working with the same teams. It is enough. It is more than enough. It is a job, it is their job, and it is their life. And it's better than anything Kihyun could dream.


End file.
